


Ruminations on Velcro

by Ashkela



Series: Why Velcro [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, velcro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-04 03:23:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14583876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashkela/pseuds/Ashkela
Summary: There's been a running joke trying to get Lexi to write a story about Velcro. Last night, I had a dream of part of this and poof, now you're stuck with it. There WILL be a follow up of the very-much-not-G type.





	Ruminations on Velcro

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlexiaBlackbriar13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/gifts).



There were many sounds that informed Felicity of her life. The comforting clatter of her fingers flying across keyboards. The repeated strikes against a training dummy as Oliver or one of the team worked out. The duller, meatier thuds when two or more sparred behind her in the lair. Her heels clicking across a board room. The whirred thunk of an arrow cutting into a flying tennis ball. And all of the loving words and noises her beloved husband produced.

Yes, she loved interesting sounds. But one sound, ONE sound made her want to rip her eardrums from her body and resign herself to a life of silence. That sound?

Velcro.

Rrrrip.

Her favorite shoes in first grade only came with Velcro closures, but she didn’t care. Until her father left and those shoes had to stay on her feet until she could barely get the strip across the tops because they couldn’t afford new ones. The sound was only a comfort in the fact that it meant her feet would stop aching.

Rrrrip.

She carried so many different computer components in her bag that she had them Velcroed together in sets. When the bullies knocked her bag to the ground and the items didn’t scatter sufficiently for their purposes, they tore apart the strips and destroyed months of work as the pieces flew far and wide, many to be crushed under passing students’ footsteps.

Rrrrip.

She’d thought it was a cute idea, using Velcro to affix the pictures of herself and Cooper to nearly any surface they could. They weren’t allowed to poke holes in the wall, so this worked out perfectly. Taking them down after he ‘died’, however, meant hearing that sound nearly a hundred times in rapid succession.

Rrrrip.

She’d bundled her wires together in the early lairs with Velcro, knowing that as she upgraded things, she’d need to swap them out as she went, so she skipped her usually preferred zip ties. But then her systems were invaded. Multiple times. And the sparks caught on the Velcro. More than once. And melted things together and just made it even worse. Zip ties it was from then on. It’s not like they cost much to replace.

Rrrrip.

Most of the closures on his various Arrow suits over the years were snaps and zippers, but the wrist bands of his gloves had always been Velcro. Too many times she had to undo them while he lay there unconscious or nearly so. The sound would bring him back to wakefulness for just a moment, long enough for her heart to ache even that much more, wishing him back in her orbit, only to relent, knowing he needed the rest.

Rrrrip.

Seriously, was it even professional to have a folder closed by Velcro in a courtroom? The sound was ridiculous and hardly professional and oh, they were about to ask questions. Time to focus.

So yes, Velcro was definitely a sound that she had always hated. Until…

Rrrrip.

William pulling an extra controller off the cabinet panel where they were stuck so that she could play video games with him. The knee-jerk reaction she has to the sound dissipates almost immediately as he holds it out to her.

Rrrrip.

Raisa opening the plastic accordion file she kept her most decadent recipes in so that she could help Felicity bake something and somehow not burn it. She fails in the not burning it category, but his smile makes up for that.

Rrrrip.

Walking up to every single desk she ever uses and discovering a tiny piece of Velcro holding a bright red pen next to the monitor. For the rest of their lives. Not once does it fail to make her tear up.

Rrrrip.

Oliver pulling the tv remote from where he’d stuck it on his side of the bed because she kept losing it in the covers. Mostly because she’d turn the tv off to pounce him and then get distracted.

Rrrrip.

Oliver convincing her to play on a Velcro wall at one of the big family fun parks they went to on their first family summer vacation. He may not convince her to land upside down like he does, but the joy ringing out in all of their voices makes looking like a fool all the more worth it.

Rrrrip.

Oliver sticking an area rug to the floor after she slipped on it, one time, for approximately half a second. Can’t have the pregnant lady falling down after all. She doesn’t even understand why this one gets to her.

Rrrrip.

Oliver following behind her as she nested and marking, labeling, and Velcroing nearly every single item into the place she decided it belonged in the nursery. And then doing it all again the next day. The next weekend. The day before the baby comes.

Rrrrip.

Oliver thinking it was a good idea to use Velcro to hold the baby monitor in place, until it needed to be moved and woke her as he picked it up from next to where she lay. Catching him snuggling Dawn was worth it, though.

Rrrrip.

Oliver teaching William how to change his baby sister’s diapers. “Trust me, buddy. The Velcro closures make life so much easier than the sticky tabs we had when Thea was a baby. You can adjust it without possibly ripping the whole diaper, and wiggly baby plus falling apart diaper is not a good combination.”

Rrrrip.

Oliver taking a giant kids electronic set and adding Velcro to each piece so that Dawn can lay them out on her giant playmat (with conveniently added Velcro strips) and “be just like Mommy Overwatch.” At 10 months. By the time she’s two, Dawn will have abandoned the Velcro because she’s actually making working circuits.

Rrrrip.

Oliver resigning himself to the fact that both of his children apparently love the Flash more than the Green Arrow (something he no longer goes by most of the time, so she supposes it’s only logical) by buying Dawn little Velcro-closure shoes with the Flash on them. She wears them everywhere and proudly shows them off when Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris come for a visit.

***

So maybe she doesn’t hate the sound of Velcro any longer. And maybe Oliver did point out last night that with William off at college and Dawn staying at the Diggles’ for the weekend, he had a few suggestions for other Velcro items that she could appreciate in a more adult setting.

But for now, she’ll settle for the sound one more time, as he stalks toward her, opening those damn gloves with his teeth. After all, she needs his bare hands for so, so many things.

**Author's Note:**

> I adore prompts, ideas, suggestions, requests, and all around babbling like crazy. Feel free to drop stuff here, or find me on Twitter with the handle @KecharasMoon.


End file.
